Car radio evolution ...

[odie]

A Brief History of Car Radio

By Jim Flammang Commercial radio stations were transmitting signals to the public in the early 1920s, amplified in 1924 by the broadcast of the final campaign speech by newly elected president Calvin Coolidge. Two years earlier, outgoing president Warren Harding had installed a radio in the...

blog.consumerguide.com

 

[SpitFire6]

The modern car stereo is lucky to pump out more than around 12-14 Watts per channel without an amplifier! I assume the valve ones could pump out more.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I have messed up, er ah, upgraded car stereos forever. Nowadays it's nice when you can crimp a connector and slide in a double din Andriod Auto/Apple Carplay unit. But then again, there are others that are pretty much impossible for someone like me.
My '68 Corvette had 1 option, AM-FM Stereo; pretty rare and expensive in 1968.

I dropped a refurb double din JVC in the Tundra and strung together a cheapie backup camera; nuthin' to it. Even works right most of the time.

Today, the streaming unit in our Model 3 is the best sounding stereo I have ever heard. It beats the snot outta the Mark Levinson stuff in out 2 Lexi.

 

[odie]

 

[Kruse]

Maybe it’s my imagination, but my ‘66 Mustang with the factory AM radio had much better reception than modern AM car radios. Our new work trucks have so much more AM buzz (from power lines) than I ever experienced. Of course, I listened to AM when WLS-Chicago could be picked up about anywhere in the U.S. during the night.

 

[atikovi]

My '68 Corvette had 1 option, AM-FM Stereo; pretty rare and expensive in 1968.

In a Corvette? Why? Couldn't hear anything anyway. The music coming out of the tailpipes was better than anything coming out of the speaker.

 

[wpod]

I had a 56 Cadillac for a while and its radio [ oem] was amazing !

 

[Malo83]

The Pioneer system in the wifes 2015 GMC Terrain DENALI kicked butt with the built in 8" sub, the Bose system in our 2017 Regal GS sucks, has no bottom end. The factory system in our 08 Malibu LTZ is a whole lot better sounding than the GS.

 

[vwmaniaman]

My Ram Laramie has the fancy radio with XM and a sub. It is like driving inside a jukebox. Love it.

 

[PimTac]

Growing up our car had a radio with two knobs. One for on/off and volume and the other for tuning. AM only. It took a moment to warm up after you turned it on and heard that distinctive click. One speaker.

 

[Schandyman]

Lexus mark levinson sound system is one of my favorites. I had two Mazdas with Bose a Hyundai tiburon with the Infinity stereo and family shared Volvo S60 T5 had the dynaudio system which sounded pretty darn good. There’s some okay sounding factory stereos I have such bad ears I can’t take too much sound inside a cars cabin these days.

Honda had a pretty nice stereo back in the day. Acoustic feedback system.

 

[walterjay]

I had a 56 Cadillac for a while and its radio [ oem] was amazing !

My dad always drove 50's Caddys. They had magnificent radios.

 

[brianl703]

The modern car stereo is lucky to pump out more than around 12-14 Watts per channel without an amplifier! I assume the valve ones could pump out more.

It's because of the speaker impedance of 4 ohms combined with the supply voltage of ~13.8V.

This is also why car speakers are 4 ohms instead of 8.

If you want more wattage, you either use a lower impedance speaker OR your amplifier has a switchmode power supply inside that boosts the 13.8V to 30V or 40V or even higher.

 

[brianl703]

Our new work trucks have so much more AM buzz (from power lines) than I ever experienced.

Part of that may come down to power company maintenance. I seem to recall that the buzz is caused by minor arcing on the power line, and it was a maintenance item to correct that.

And this maintenance was considered more important when AM radio had more listeners.

As far as WLS, it's been around 15 years since I tried, but I could get it at my house 30 miles west of Washington, DC.

 

[meep]

The modern car stereo is lucky to pump out more than around 12-14 Watts per channel without an amplifier! I assume the valve ones could pump out more.

The tube systems were weak in comparison. The factory radio for the ‘57 may have had a watt or 2. It had a balancing transformer mounted on the speaker itself if I remember. remember, it was AM, so not much information below… what, 300-200hz, with a top roll off of 3khz with a max of 5khz. Without the lower frequencies, that couple of watts made it much farther, and the typical speaker could be a little more efficient since it didn’t have to cover such a wide frequency range.

 

[Schandyman]

It's because of the speaker impedance of 4 ohms combined with the supply voltage of ~13.8V.

This is also why car speakers are 4 ohms instead of 8.

If you want more wattage, you either use a lower impedance speaker OR your amplifier has a switchmode power supply inside that boosts the 13.8V to 30V or 40V or even higher.

Some Nissan are 2 ohm speakers and not definite scion could have had 3 ohm?

 

[brianl703]

Some Nissan are 2 ohm speakers and not definite scion could have had 3 ohm?

I think some of the Bose car audio systems use 2-ohm speakers as well.

 

[Schandyman]

I think some of the Bose car audio systems use 2-ohm speakers as well.

I’ve seen Bose speakers @ 1ohm my grandfather’s 91 maxima had tuned enclosures in the doors with a built in amp

 

[nobb]

There's way more R&D that go into car audio from the factory these days, so stock systems now sound a lot better compared to 10-20 years ago where they just slapped a cheapo paper cone driver into the metal stamping. For the "premium" systems, I don't think I've heard any that truly sounded bad.

Don't like the trend going on for more speakers vs focusing on quality. 99% of people are listening to stereo sources, so I don't see why it's necessary to have such positioning of sound. All you really need is a good amp, bass driver, and mid/tweeter combo on each (4) corner.

 

[Schandyman]

Don't like the trend going on for more speakers vs focusing on quality. 99% of people are listening to stereo sources, so I don't see why it's necessary to have such positioning of sound. All you really need is a good amp, bass driver, and mid/tweeter combo on each (4) corner.

Totally agree. My Volvo had a center stage speaker which you could turn off but really was nice turned on. Gave a rich cinematic experience especially in instrumental music.